LA Galaxy: How can they go from good to great?
The LA Galaxy are a good team with some real potential. But how can they become a great team? Well, here are two shortcomings that Guillermo Barros Schelotto and his players need to address to go from good to great.
Week 6 is over and the Los Angeles team that hasn’t had an immaculate start to the season looks promising. But can the LA Galaxy become an elite Major League Soccer team? The easy answer is yes, but the process to reach the next level is much more difficult.
There have been plenty of positives from the first month and a half of the season for the Galaxy. A greater organization and control in the midfield, Zlatan Ibrahimovic continuing his MVP-level form, obviously, and the work of new manager Guillermo Barros Schelotto on the training ground having an impact on matches.
But there have also been some glaring negatives. If the Galaxy can overcome those negatives and continue to improve as the season ages, they will be able to join the top ranks of MLS teams.
The biggest area of concern for the Galaxy is their defense. It has been shaky at best. Opponents have proven that they can be caught out and spread apart quite easily. Goals from Minnesota United and the Portland Timbers stand out as signifiers of these massive lapses in defense. Since there hasn’t been much consistency in the backline, a few mistakes are expected, but there’s a real problem when players are consistently caught out of position or clearly on different pages.
Barros Schelotto has his team playing a very attacking style of play, in which the wing-backs are relied on to make overlapping runs. This creates more opportunities for the attack. It also leaves the wings wide open for the opposition to counter, thus forcing the central defenders to spread out when pressuring the ball, leaving the rest of the field wide open for runs in behind.
The Galaxy are lucky they haven’t conceded more in these situations, but I guarantee elite teams like Los Angeles FC and D.C. United will capitalize. Schelotto has done well as the manager. His system works and the players will only get more comfortable in it. But until his defenders can find the balance between attacking support and defense, I’m afraid there will continue to be problems at the back.
Despite the glaring issues in defense, the building blocks for this LA Galaxy team are in place: the midfield is strong and will continue to improve as the season progress; the attack is among the best in the league — any attack spearheaded by Ibrahimovic would be considered one of the best.
While there are few flaws in the Galaxy attack, there is one weakness that could hurt their progress in becoming an elite team: patience. While the team is organized well from the midfield up, attacking players tend to lose their shape and rush to get the ball in the box. Playing possession or working the build-up a while longer would be more beneficial to maintain control and prevent those killer counter-attacks.
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It’s safe to call Zlatan a demanding player and he probably expects the ball at his feet sooner rather than later, so it’s possible for the supporting players to feel rushed in getting the ball to him. Zlatan has played for some very good teams and he hasn’t always been the sole focal point, so I doubt he’s instructing his teammates to do anything other than to do what’s best for the team, not just himself. But even in the two games Ibrahimovic was out for, I noticed players rushing crosses and build-up play in the final third, rather than playing with more patience and control.
This is a good problem to have. It is the type of thing that players can learn from and develop. But it is still an issue, like their defensive vulnerabilities against the counter-attack, that needs to be solved if they are to take the step from good to great.
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Nevertheless, as these shortcomings work themselves out and the Galaxy turn those negatives into positives, it’s fair to expect this Los Angeles team to join their counterpart and league rivals as an elite power in MLS.